■j^^X^ 



THE PROGEESS OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION 



INCLUDING 



A QUAETEE-CENTURY EEVIEW 



OF THE WORK OF THE 



WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. 



AN ADDRESS 



BY 



HOMER T. FULLER, President, 



JUNE 21, 1894. 



I 



THE PROGRESS OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION 



INCLUDING 



A QUARTER-CENTURY REVIEW 



OF THE WORK OF THE 



WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. 



AN ADDRESS 



HOMER T. FULLER, President 



JUNE 21, 1894. 



WORCESTER, MASS.: 

PRESS OF CHARLES HAMILTON 

311 MAIN STREET. 

1894. 






^ 



In «xcliSBg« _ 
MAY 16 1913 



THE PROGRESS OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION, 



A QUARTER-CENTURY REVIEW. 



Every good thing in this world is a growth. 
Heroes appear full-panoplied only in falJes. The 
crystalline gem is the product of years of slow 
accretion. So with all valuable human institutions. 
They are all growths which have slowly proceeded 
out of matter or mind, which have been wrought 
out by forces of intelligence, competent in time 
for almost any achievement, but which can really 
achieve only by persistent struggle and repeated 
experiment, and sometimes only on a basis of mere 
conjecture. 

When an institution has passed through its form- 
ative period, has become well rooted and has made 
proof of its usefulness, it is worth while .to begin its 
history. The quarter - century turn made by the 
Worcester Polytechnic Institute during the past 
year has presented the opportimity, which I have 
been requested to embrace, to plant a milestone that 
may be to others who may walk this way hereafter, 
both a mark of ])i-ogress and a memento of its 
beginnings. But this cannot be most suitably done 
without a brief survey of the similar work that pre- 
ceded the establishment of this Institute and that 
has been done elsewhere in the same time. 



So far as I know, the earliest systematic indus- 
trial training in connection ^vith any school was 
given at Moscow, Russia, beginning in 1763. This 
was at a charity school for foundling boys opened 
by the Empress . Catharine II. Here workshops 
were opened and equipped to teach the boys trades 
— shoemaking, carjDcntry, tailoring, brass founding, 
etc. — that they might be able to earn an honest live- 
lihood. This went on without much change for 
seventy years. In 1836 the foundling house became 
sorely crowded. A woman agaiu, Maria Feodor- 
ovna. widow of Alexander I., like Mrs. Hemenway 
of our OAvii State, came to the rescue, provided new 
quarters for three hundred boys, and finally, from 
her private fortune, endowed the school with the 
simi of 81,250,000. From 1836 to 1814 the studies 
of the school were increased, then it grew on the 
mechanical side, and in 1816 the Emperor ^N'icholas 
ordered the extension and re-equipment of the 
shops. In 181:9 the course of training covered foiu* 
years, two-thirds of the time being devoted to in- 
dustrial work. This work was always upon articles 
for actual use, and in 1851-56 the school satisfac- 
torily filled government orders for artillery equij)- 
ments. This practical work on serviceable manu- 
factures Avas the distinguishing feature of the 
original Russian system. It antedated the other 
so-called Russian system in vogue at St. Petersburg, 
and much lauded in this country by Prof. Runkle 
and others, by a hundred years. In 1860 the indus- 
trial school became the ImjDerial Technical School 
at Moscow, with a six years' cotu'se of study and an 



average of fourteen hours a week given to shop 
practice. 

In 1867 the Institute of Technology at St. Peters- 
burg, with its five years' course of study, in which 
most of the practical work is done in the last year, 
was established. This is chiefly a school of chem- 
istry and civil engineering, while at Moscow mechan- 
ical engineering is the leading course. This Insti- 
tute also was preceded by a trade school. 

Sweden began industrial work in schools about 
1795; Bavaria, before 1806; and the polytechnic at 
Vienna dates from 1815. 

L'Ecole Polytechnique of Paris, founded in 1790, 
was purely, as now, a school of military engineering. 

Most of the other German technical high schools 
were organized from 1820 to 1870. Their work has, 
except in chemistry, been chiefly theoretical, till 
about 1880, when machine and wood shops were 
started at Berlin and Munich. Yet all of these, 
with one exception, have developed from lower or 
secondary industrial schools. 

But France for more than forty years, or from 
1825 to 1865, led the world in the practical applica- 
tions of science in school instruction to the improve- 
ment of arts, trades, and manufactures. The central 
school at Paris and the Foremen's schools at Aix, 
Angers, and Chalon-sur-Marne, took up the liigher 
work, followed by a multitude of trade and appren- 
tice schools. Those of us who visited the exposition 
at Chicago will recall the flue specimens of wrought- 
iron work done at two of these French schools. 
But they were no better than this tea-table on the 



platform at my left or the banquet lamps made at the 
Washburn Shops the past winter by members of the 
senior class of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 

From France came the first engineers employed 
on our American canals and railroads. There our 
own early engineers were educated, and thence, in 
part from their work and in part from the necessities 
of our own projected enterprises, came the impulse 
which founded in 1824 the first civil engineering 
school of our land, the Rensselaer Polytechnic at 
Troy. This was a lone star for nearly twenty-five 
years. 

In 1847, the period of establishing scientific de- 
partments of colleges began. Sheffield led the way 
in that year. Lawrence Scientific followed in 1848, 
the Chandler at Dai'tmouth in 1852, and the poly- 
technic department of Washington University in 
1854. The first became chiefly a school of chemis- 
try and mineralogy, the second a school of astrono- 
my and pure mathematics — now under the guidance 
of its present dean having a strong inclination to 
geology, the third has always led toward civil engi- 
neering, while the fourth has been chiefly a mining 
school, but is now organized as an engineering 
department of the Washington University at St. 
Louis with seven courses of study. 

But technical education in this country really be- 
gan under the impulse of the national land grants 
in 1862. The causes of this action of the govern- 
ment were three-fold: (1) The known stimulus 
given both to agricultural interests and to foreign 
manufactures by the beginnings of technical educa- 



tion in Europe. (2) The acknowledged superiority 
of those manufactures, especially in France and 
Switzerland, as shown by the exhibits of goods and 
wares at the earlier world's expositions. (3) The 
fact that in the first years of civil conflict, through 
the dej^redations of confederate cruisers, this country 
was compelled to rely on its own constructive energy 
and to develop its own resources. AVe learned at the 
cannon's mouth to make our own steel and engines 
and cruisers, our own mill machinery and machine 
tools, and to bind together by the strong bands of 
railway tracks the loose aggregations of States. 
Patriotic motives blended with the spirit of enter- 
prise and the incentive of anticipated pecuniary ad- 
vantage led to the large grants of land for the con- 
struction of railways and increased appropriations 
for the improvement of rivers and harbors. Ease of 
communication and facility of transportation would 
unify and centralize pur230se and interest — would 
make the country one and indissoluble. More direct- 
ly they would increase the price of land, attract im- 
migration, make markets foi* products, and increase 
the country's wealth. 

The "Morrill Act" of 1862, supplemented by the 
•'Hatch Experiment Station" law of 1877, and the 
additional endowment act of 1890, has resulted in 
the organization or reorganization of sixty-five 
schools which receive aid from the government. 
About one-fourth of these are purely agricultural 
colleges, another fourth combine instruction iu 
agriculture and mechanics, a third (juarter have 
technical departments iu connection willi regular 



8 

college or university eom^ses. and the remainder as 
yet are not fully organized, or give almost no train- 
ing in the applications of science to the aits. 

The whole number of these that aftbrds thorough 
training for engineering ptn-snits is much fewer. 
Tliose most completely equipped are the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Techn<:>L:»gy at Boston. Cornell 
University at Ithaca. X. Y.. Purdue University at 
Lafayette. Ind.. and the engineeiing departments 
of the Universities of TTisconsin. ^lissotui and 
Cahfornia. Most of these were organized between 
1865 and I'^'^'J. In addition there have been estab- 
hshed seven independent technical schools on 
piivate foundations."^ Of these the Worcester 
Polytechnic Institute ( originally chartered as the 
Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial 
Science) was the thii^d and the pioneer in this 
country of all those schools in which the actiuil 
construction of machinery is made a part of the 
coiu^se of instrtiction. 

Xearly thirty years ago. in the later months of 
1S<31. Ml'. John Boynton of Templeton made known 
to ^Ii*. David Whitcomb of this city, his foiTaer 
partner and most tnisted fiiend. his purpose to 
devote the major part <:>f the carefully treasured 
savings of a lifetime t<:) the founding of a school 
foY training for industiial pursuits. His fii'st 



'^ These are Bensselaer PolTtechnic Lis::~Te. Troy. v. Y.. organized 
1S24: Lehigh Umversitr. South Bethlehem, Pa., 1866; Worcester Poly- 
tec hnic Institnte, Worcester. Mass., 1868: Stevens Institute of Tech- 
nology. Hoboken, :sr. J.. 1871: Case School of Applied Science. Clere- 
land. O., 1881: Rose Polytechnic Institnte, Terre Hante. Ind., 1883; 
State School of Technology, Atlanta, Ga.. 1887. 



9 

thought had been to endow an academy at Temple- 
ton, then to endow and locate a school at Mason, 
]N^. H., his native place. But his friend, a man of 
rare sagacity, felt that the atmosphere of a country 
village would compare unfavorably with that of a 
thriving manufacturing city .for such an enterprise, 
and, after some weeks' reflection, suggested that 
Worcester would be a better location. The result 
of the conference of the two men was that Mr. 
Boynton offered to locate in Worcester county, 
provided others would cooperate with him in furn- 
ishing buildings and equipment. 

Mr. Whitcomb had, in January, 1865, consulted 
with his pastor. Rev. Seth Sweetser, concerning the 
best detailed plan for the use of these funds. Dr. 
Sweetser had already large experience in educa- 
tional affairs, especially as trustee of Phillips Ando- 
ver Academy and Seminary since 1850, and as an 
overseer of Harvard University, and, naturally, was 
the trusted adviser of men who had thought of be- 
stowing money on educational projects. It then 
transpired that Mr. Ichabod Washburn had, at 
least a year previous, confided to Dr. Sweetser his 
thought of establishing a school for the training of 
apprentices. But as yet he had taken no definite 
steps towards carrying his plan into execution. Dr. 
Sweetser conceived the idea of uniting the two 
])rojects into one sclieme, and after some deliberation 
Mr. Washl)urji very cordially acquiesced and nobly 
and generously co-operated. 

Hon. Emory Washburn, President Hill oi'Hai'vard 
University, and Mr. Joseph White, Secretary of the 



10 

State Board of Education, were consulted, and very 
early Hon. Stephen Salisbury was privy to the plan. 
On the 6th of March, 1865, invitations were quietly 
sent out to thirty of the leading citizens of Worces- 
ter, asking them to meet at the office of Hon. George 
F. Hoar to consider the proposition of the unknown 
benefactor. At that meeting Messrs. Hoar, Sum- 
ner Pratt, Albert Curtis, Abram Firth, J. M. C. 
Armsby, and Stephen Salisbury, Jr., were appointed 
a committee to solicit subscriptions. The first pub- 
lic announcement of the matter was made in the 
Worcester Palladium of Wednesday, March 29, 
1865, as follows: " A gentleman, who for the pres- 
ent withholds his name from the public, offers a fund 
of $100,000 for the establishment of a scientific 
school in Worcester, upon condition that the neces- 
sary land and buildings shall be furnished by our 
citizens." 

Twelve thousand dollars were at once subscribed, 
and Mr. Ichabod Washburn later proposed to erect 
and equip a shop at a cost not to exceed $10,000. 
Fifty thousand dollars were deemed necessary for 
the erection of a suitable main building. For several 
reasons subscriptions came in slowly. First, it was 
deemed wise by those in charge of the project 
to test the interest of the citizens of Worcester 
in the enterprise. If it could not be made popular 
it would not succeed. Secondly, there were many 
distractions and uncertainties in those days. The 
financial and business outlook was, as it is to-day, 
•an anxious gaze upon troubled waters. On March 
1 of that year gold was sold at 202, 7-30 U. S. 



11 

bonds were below par, and cotton was eighty-five 
cents a pound. On March 30 gold fell to 148. 
In four days the fall of Richmond was announced, 
on April 9th Lee surrendered, and, six days later, 
President Lincoln was assassinated. The condition 
of the country absorbed attention and for a moment 
the outlook for all the future was as black as night. 
But the end of the civil strife was an encourage- 
ment. Stimulus was also given by the founding, 
about that time, of similar enterprises elsewhere. 
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology had 
begun its work in a private house in Boston in 
February of that year, and had in March applied 
for an amendment to its charter allowing it to hold 
property, the income of which should not exceed 
130,000. The gift of |500,000 by Mr. Ezra Cornell 
to found a university was announced April 12. 

The bill to incorporate the Institute was in final 
draft introduced into the legislature April 26. It 
was approved by Gov. John A.. Andrew May 9. 
(Hon. A. H. Bullock was then speaker of the house 
and Hon. Jona. E. Field president of the senate.) On 
that day $30,000 had been subscribed. The Trustees 
have tlie original sul)scription paper. It includes 
the offer of a lot of land at the junction of GroA e 
and Salisbury streets for a site, on the grounds now 
occupied by the State Armory. Mr. Boynton had 
at first stipulated that a building should be ei*ected 
by the fii'st of May, 18()7, but tlu^ time was after- 
wards extended. He had coniideuce that the entei'- 
prise would succeed. " The aim of this school," he 
says, "shall ever be the insti'uction of youth in those 



12 

branches of education not nsiiallv taught m the pnb- 
Hc schools, which are essential and best adapted to 
train the young for practical life." 

The corporation of the Institute was organized 
June 3. Hon. Stephen Sahsbury, 2d. was chosen 
president : Phinehas Ball, then mayor, secretary, 
and David TThitcomb. treasurer. At the same meet- 
ing, ^vith respect to the letter of gift and instructions 
from John Boynton. Esq.. it was 

'' Yoted, That the same be adopted and accepted 
as the terms upon winch the donation of SKJO.OOO 
is made, and that a substantial compliance there- 
ydt\\ be considered the condition upon which said 
fund is to be held and managed.''' 

This fund was already in the hands of the newly 
elected treasurer, but on the boohs of the Institute 
is entered as received Alay 1. Two facts concern- 
ing the original securities and later administration 
of the fund are worthy of notice : — 

( 1 ) That some of the original securities are still 
in the hands of the present treasurer unchanged. 

(2 ) That the appreciation of securities and 
changes in investment, together with the natural 
income, made the gro^^th of the fund in two years 
over 824.nu(;). 

This accumulation, by a later communication 
from Mr. Boynton. was set aside as a library and 
apparatus fund. On June 2b it was announced 
that Siri.Oiin was still lacking, and the Daily SjJfjy 
with its usual pubhc spirit, as it had done more than 
once before, published a strong appeal to the citi- 
zens to complete the subscriptions. The carriage- 



13 

makers responded in a body, and sent to the commit- 
tee July 1 $241. Other workmen in twenty or more 
shops followed their example, and on August 5 the 
aggregate was announced as $50,694, from about 
five hundred givers. This was exclusive of the gift 
of Mr. Washburn for a machine shop. The sum 
was afterwards increased by further contributions, 
$10,000 from Mr. Salisbury, and accumulated inter- 
est, to $70,987, and on September 18, 1865, Mr. 
Salisbury offered the lot of land of ^ye and one-half 
acres on which the Institute buildings now stand. 
This sum, and $4,000 besides, was applied to the 
erection of Boynton Hall, to its furnishing, and to 
the grading of the grounds. This grading, begun 
when the whole hill was covered with a dense 
wood, was done with rare taste and good judg- 
ment, under the direction of Mr. Vaux of l^ew 
York, and to-day the Institute grounds, with its 
green slopes, its variety of shrubbery, blossoming 
afresh almost every week from early April till the 
summer vacation, is a delight to the eye and an 
important factor in the educative inlluence of the 
Institute. 

On the second day of November, 1866, the build- 
ing committee, consisting of Messrs. Whitcomb, 
Hoar, Lincoln, and Morgan, was appointed, and on 
the 11th day of IN^ovember, 1868, Boynton Hall 
was dedicated and the real work of the Institute 
formally inaugurated. The Washburn Sho})s build- 
ing was erected, but not at that time equipped. 
The records of that event are already in print, so 
that I will not repeat them. None of the gentle- 



14 

men ayIio took part in the exercises of that occa- 
sion is now hving, except Hon. George F. Hoar, 
who is the only survivor of the original tiaistees. 
Of the first instructors there are three, Messrs. 
George I. Alden, George E. Gladwin, and M. P. 
Higgins, present to-night, while Prof. J. E. Sinclair 
came but a few months later. 

All these have rounded well the quarter-century 
which has elapsed since, and are in their prime of 
service. Vse might, were there time, pause here to 
speak of the brilliant and versatile, the honored and 
greatly lamented first principal, Dr. Charles O. 
Thompson, who was for fourteen years the execu- 
tive head of the Institute, and who was eminently 
fitted by his tact and courtesy, his quick 2)erceptions 
and his power of easily adapting words and work 
to new relations, and by his successful experience as 
an educator, to conduct the proposed experiment. 

That the distinctive features of the Institute were 
regarded as experimental, even after three or four 
years' trial, appears from the catalogue of 1871-72. 
In mention of the causes of faihu^e in pre^dous 
efforts to combine manual labor with school work, 
one cause was shown to be that the attempted work 
had been allowed to degenerate into play. The aim 
and methods employed, as now understood, were 
then set forth, but it was added: -■ The whole 
scheme must be regarded as an experunent in 
American education, which, at the present stage, is 
sufficiently promising to warrant its further prose- 
cution.'' 

Those first years were years of organization and 



15 

rooting. The conditions of admission were the 
common English branches and algebra to quadrat- 
ics. The lower limit of age was at first fourteen 
years, and the average age of the earlier classes at 
admission was about seventeen and a half years; 
since 1871 the limit has been sixteen years, and the 
average age at admission is now nearly nineteen 
years. The courses of study were originally six, 
and each covered three years. Practice began at 
the middle of the first year and was all done after- 
noons from two to six and Saturday morning from 
eight to twelve. 

The first apprentice class entering for the extra 
half-year's work in shop and drawing was admitted 
Feb. 20, 1872. It consisted of fifteen members. It 
never exceeded nineteen till 1882, when the enlarge- 
ment of the Shops permitted the admission of twen- 
ty-five. In 1885 the number was increased to 
thirty-two, in 1890 the limit was removed, and in 
that and the following years, till the four years' 
course was adopted, the numbers were forty-two, 
fifty-two, sixty-three, and sixty-eight. The adver- 
tising of a limit in respect to numbers was always a 
hindrance to growth. Many, who othei'wise would 
have applied for admission, would not try the exam- 
ination when success in it was not to make sure of 
entrance. 

During all this period of ex])eriment and of finan- 
cial struggle, while the connnunity around watched 
and waited, and sometimes criticised, the faculty held 
on unflinchingly to their |)Ian and methods, and the 
trustees abated not a jot or little of their confidence 



16 

in the ultimate success of their general scheme. 
Not to mention some who are now living and others 
still who are among the unseen, it has seemed to me 
that to three or four of the original trustees the 
Institute is very largely indebted for its secure 
establishment and broad foundation. Mr. David 
Whitcomb brought Mr. Boynton's gift to Worcester. 
He was the first treasurer of the Institute. His 
sagacity and thorough acquaintance with practical 
affairs and his unswerving integrity were the basis 
of Mr. Boynton's confidence in him, when the latter 
entrusted to him almost his whole fortune without 
receipt or security. And of that confidence, I think, 
he spoke with more pride than of any other event of 
his life. 

Dr. Sweetser and Mr. Ichabod Washburn outlined 
the plan of work of the Institute, aided by the sug- 
gestions of Gov. Emory Washburn, while Mr. 
Salisbury, the first president of the Board, a fast 
friend of all the others, stood ready to encourage 
and generously support any public enterprise in 
respect to which they were agreed. The Institute 
was fortunate in its other counsellors and the aid 
they afforded, in the acuteness and breadth of Mr. 
Hoar, in the genuine and generous interest of Messrs. 
L. J. Knowles and P. L. Moen, and in the practical 
wisdom and large mechanical experience of Mr. 
Ichabod Washburn and Mr. C. H. Morgan. They 
were not the men to put their hands to the plow and 
look back, to be discouraged by a temporary east 
wind, to hang upon the gaze of popular favor or 
disfavor, or to make a promise and then shirk its 



17 

fulfilment. Dea. Washburn's $10,000 for a shop 
grew to a more expensive building, with $5,000 for 
equipment, $50,000 for its endowment and $30,000 
besides for the general purposes of the Institute. 
Mr. Whitcomb more than once drew his check on his 
own private account for the payment of the deficit of 
current expenses, joined Mr. Salisbury in bearing 
half of the cost of the additions made to the Shop in 
1881, and in the same year gave $20,000 to the 
general endowment. His good sense and the un- 
stinted time he gave to the Institute were worth more 
to it than his weight in gold. His rugged face hid a 
tender heart. He had sympathy with boys who were 
working their way, and was one of the two or three 
men — Mr. P. L. Moen was another — who said to 
me, "If you know of those needing aid and to 
whom a loan or a gift would be a relief, let me 
know." Mr. Salisbury's gifts grew with the need of 
the Institute. First the site, twice enlarged by ad- 
ditions, and $22,000 for the original building fund, 
then the graduates' aid fund, in order that stimulus 
might be given to all for the attainment of a high 
standard. He gave liberally for endowment, but 
with this purpose (I quote from his own lips): ''I 
have wished and given my money that the school 
might not be a merely local institution ; it will be bet- 
ter if it has a broader patronage." At his death^ his 
aggregate gifts had amounted to nearly a quarter of 
a million of dollars. As president of the corpora- 
tion he gave to the faculty a most cordial support and 
to sti-uggling students, substantial sympathy. Some 

* August, 24, 1884. 



18 

students once complained to him of discipline that 
was partial — some one nncaught had gone unpunish- 
ed. '' Yes, young gentlemen," was the laconic reply, 
" we always punish those we catch." That was the 
end of the appeal. 

After nearly fourteen years of efficient service, 
Dr. Thompson resigned to accept the presidency of 
the newly established Rose Polytechnic at Terre 
Haute, Ind. (He was then eight months abroad, 
had successfully inaugurated the work of that insti- 
tute and continued it about a year, when he died, 
lamented by a wide circle of friends, both in Worces- 
ter and in his new home) . The Institute had begun 
to recover from the eifects of the financial depression 
of 1873-77. Its students were increasing and there 
was good demand for its graduates. But income 
from its invested funds had been gradually diminish- 
ing through decreasing rates of interest, and most of 
the original State fund had been expended in equip- 
ment of the school and shops and in meeting the de- 
ficit of current expenses. Receipts from tuition up 
to this date had never been quite $6,000 annually. 

The laboratories in Boynton Hall were straitened 
and unsuited for their purpose, there was no library 
except the fcAv books in the office, nor was there 
room for one. It seemed impossible that the school 
should grow much farther without ampler quarters 
and it could not be continued without debt. There 
was published in the early summer of 1883 a state- 
ment of the work and the needs of the Institute, 
the suggestion of a plan for enlargement and the 
appeal to the public for the requisite funds. It was 



I 



19 

proposed to extend Boynton Hall forty-five feet on 
the west and to build a chemical laboratory on 
West street (where now it is planned to erect a 
new engineering laboratory) and to increase the 
endowment. The project was successful only in 
securing a part of the desired endowment. This 
relieved for a little the most pressing necessity. It 
furnished income for current expenses. The wis- 
dom of extending the time of the course of study 
was also discussed. But this scheme slumbered 
for lack of funds. A part of the basement was 
fitted up as an annex to the physical laboratory, 
and here Prof. Kimball, whose work at the Insti- 
tute began in 1870, set up his dynamos, using 
power from the Shops. In 1886, the second State 
grant of $50,000 was made."^ This reinforced the 
endowment, only the income being available for 
current expenses. Meanwhile there was a steady 
growth in numbers, — only one year, 1886-87, show- 
ing any abatement of the rising tide, — and Boynton 
Hall became crowded as a bee-hive. 

The quarters for chemistry and physics grew to 
be entirely inadequate and there was no place for 
test work in mechanical engineering. At this criti- 
cal juncture Stephen SaUsbury, Esq., whose interest 
in the Institute dated from the very inception of 
the enterprise, on April 20, 1887, made a communi- 
cation to the corporation, which, began as follows: 

''I am anxious to assist by placing at the dis- 
posal of the trustees the sum of one hundred thou- 

* A first i^jrant of 150,000 was made by the legislature of Massachu- 
setts by a resolve approved May 10, 1809. 



•'>(' 



sand dollars, to be expended bv them in the erection 
of a suitable biiildino' to contain laboratoiies for 
mechanical, physical and chemical scit-nce." 

A mort- Tri-e. timely, or fruitful gift than this 
was never made to any institntion. It gave oppor- 
tunity to broaden the scope and purpose of the 
training given, it cheered despairing instructors, it 
attracted students. For once the professors who 
were to occupy it had free range to plan the interior 
of a new structure: the architect must be content 

to assemble their arran2"ements. Yet Mr. S. C. 

<— 

Earle. the architect, was as happy in this as he 
could be. no m-jrt exhibiting impatience or assert- 
ing inability to adopt suggestions than he did 
when makmg the plans, much in his own way. for 
the earlier Boynton Hall, for the An Musetun at 
Xorwich. ov the beautiful Central Chiu'ch <:tf oiu' 
own city. The corner-st'jne of the Salisbury Labo- 
ratories was laid with appropriate ceremonies June 
2. ISSS: it was completed barely in season for 
occupancy in the autumn of 1S89.^ 

Mention should be made of the picturesque 
magnetic laboratory erected at the foot of the Insti- 
tute HiU in 1SS7. This is an architecttn-al gem. 
one of Mr. Earle's. although Prof. Eamball is 
responsible for the interior of it. and Mr. SaUsbuiy 
included the ex|3ense of it in his donation. Mr. 
Sahsbury. also, assisted bj Prof. White, deltly 



*Tliis building is Ho x 100 feet in extreme dimensions, has four 
floors available for nse beside snb-basement and roof-room, and is 
especially appropriated to work in mechanical engineering, physics, 
and chemistry. 

The department of Mechanical Engineering occnpies in the basement. 



21 

extended Mr. Vaux's arrangement of the older part 
of the grounds to the newly graded portions. 

The equipment of the Salisbury Laboratories was 
slower than the erection of the building, and it is 
not yet entirely completed. But to this date Mr. 
Salisbury has paid for this equipment $24,*]61 addi- 
tional to the original gift of $100,000, and also in 
1891 caught quickly a suggestion of a member of 
the faculty and gave and graded the beautiful slope 
of the Institute grounds south of the old " Jo Bill " 
road. 

In the summer of 1889, after Professors Aid en, 
Kimball and Kinnicutt were well established in the 
new laboratories, there was a memorable overhauling 
in Boynton Hall. Mr. G. Henry Whitcomb pro- 
posed to defray its expense, but Mr. Salisbury offered 
to share the renovation. At the end of the sum- 



winch is wholly above ground, two laboratory rooms, each 44 x 40 feet, 
— one for steam engineering, to which the boiler-room is adjacent, — 
the other for general testing and for dynamos, — and another testing 
laboratory 40 x 15 feet; and on the first floor drawing and model 
rooms, each 40 x 40 feet ; a lecture room, private study and reading 
room. 

To the work in Physics are devoted in the basement an electro-techni- 
cal laboratory, 63 x 24 feet, a constant temperature room and a store- 
room; on the first floor an electrical laboratory for advanced work, 63 
X 24 feet, a spectrometer room, 30 x 26 feet, and a battery room ; and 
the whole of the second floor, which is intended for class work in 
physics. Among the more important rooms on this floor are a lecture 
room, 40 x 40 feet, a general laboratory, 40 x 40 feet, a laboratory for 
elementary electrical work, 63 x 24 feet, an apparatus room, 40 x 15 
feet, a photographic room, 26 x 16 feet, a photometric room, 23 x 12 
feet, a calorimeter room, recitation room and study. 

The department of Chemistry occupies, in the basement, rooms used 
for assaying, gas analysis, acids and other stores, and the whole of the 
upper, or third floor. This contains a general, an analytical, an organic, 
an industrial, a sanitary, and a gas laboratory, beside a reference library 
room, and special rooms for research. 



22 

mer, besides other needed rejDairs, there had been 
completed a hbrary and reading-room, a private 
office, a civil engineers' drawing-room and i-ecita- 
tion-room for that department, a mineralogical 
laboratory and cases for specimens, lavatories and 
lockers for two hnndred and thirty students, and 
new steam-heating apparatus. The work was done 
at an expense of 812,840. 

This sketch of the Institute would not be com- 
plete without record of the gift made by Stephen 
Salisbury, Esq., of Oct. 1, 1887. of the tract of land 
known as Institute Park, which was conveyed by 
deed to the City of Worcester but with the provi- 
sion that, after twenty years from that date, the 
Institute might erect and maintain upon the highest 
point of the Park one or more buildings for educa- 
tional purposes. 

In the summer of 1892 the Washburn Shops had 
become too crowded for convenient use, and there 
was not room enough for new machinery needed for 
the oTOwino' classes. Pecitation-rooms were also in- 
sufficient in number. Accordingly it was determined 
to erect the later addition to the Shops, a building 
100 X 51 feet and four stories in height. The work 
was begun in June and completed in December. 
The basement furnishes a fine forge-room, the first 
floor an extension of the machine shop, the second 
floor a commodious wood-room, and the third a 
fine drawing-room, with adjacent model and blue- 
print rooms. And noAV, in five years from the 
time when it really burst its first shell, notwith- 
standing floor space had been increased one hundred 



23 

and fifty per cent, in that time, the Institute is forced, 
both through the groTvth of numbers and through 
the increasing demand for engineering laboratory 
experiment and investigation, to plan for another 
building, 116 x 52 feet, and a power plant besides, 
to be located west of the Washburn Shops, and a hy- 
draulic testing plant at Chaffin's Station in llolden. 
So much may be said concerning the habitations and 
utensils of the Institute recently provided. 

There have also been changes in the courses of 
study. That in architecture was dropped after the 
first class was graduated in 1871, lack of funds here 
and the better illustrations of the work in large 
cities making its continuance inexpedient. There 
was a course of practice in drawing till 1888, when 
the superior advantages offered at the Art Museum 
and Lowell School of Design in Boston could not 
be competed with. A course of physics was an- 
nounced in 1875, but in 1888 it was dropped. Its 
work in a broader form reappeared in the gi'aduate 
course in electrical engineering, which was estab- 
lished in 1889. In 1890 the general scientific course 
was ofiered, and in 1892 the undergraduate course 
in electrical engineering. The courses in chemistry 
and in civil and mechanical engineering have been 
contemporaneous with the life of the Institute. The 
students in the last named course have constituted 
by far the largest portion of most of the classes; 
in those of 1872 and 1876 the civils predominated. 
The terms of admission to the Institute remained 
the same from 1868 to 1884. They have since been 
advanced by more English and algebra, French and 



24 

both plane and solid geometrv. That is. fully three 
years of high school work, at the least, are now 
requisite foi' preparation, where formerly one year 
foUoAving a high grade grammar course was suffi- 
cient. Says Col. Carroll D. Wright, in his com- 
parison of the work of institutes of technology, just 
pul3lished in the Report of the Commissioner of 
Labor for 1S92 :— 

•• The Worcester Polytechnic Institute, though 
sometimes classed T^^ith schools of manual trainino*, 
is vii'tually an institution of college rank. The 
requirements for admission to the lowest class are 
fully equivalent, except as to Latin and Greek, to 
the standard of entrance examination in the best 
Xew Lno'land colleo'es." 

The changes T\ithin the com-ses of study are 
noteworthy. Since 1882 there have been added 
inventional o^eometrv. advanced French, and more 
physics for all coiu'ses: steam engineering, engineer- 
ing laboratory and hydraulics for civils and mechan- 
ics, special topics in chemistry have rcjDlaced the 
advanced mathematics formerly given in this de- 
partment and there is a choice in the Senior year 
between shop work and electricity. The total num- 
ber of recitation divisions has doul>led. In 1882, 
the nmnber of professors was seven, of instrnctors 
two, assistants one : in 1891:. professors and assistant 
professors thirteen, instructors eight, assistants five, 
exclusive of all instruction in shop. In 1882, the 
number of students was one hundred and twenty- 
one, in 1891, two hundred and fifty-seven: total 
income in 1882-83, 821,000: in 1891. 853.000, exclu- 
siA'e of income and tuitions carried to shop accoimt. 



25 

The total endowment fund in 1883 was $408,000; 
in 1894, $552,000, or including the recent State 
grant over $600,000, exclusive of cash balances. 

Since July 1, 1883, the Institute has received 
$142,000 for endowment and $198,000 for build- 
ings, repairs, equipment, library, and special gifts 
for current expenses. 

The funds of the Institute have been wisely and 
conservatively invested. The market value of its 
investments. May 1 of this year, was equal to the 
cost of those investments and was $20,000 above 
the par value of the funds. During the past year 
of financial stress and depreciation, the aggregate 
dividends and interest on investments have been 
only $200 less than the year preceding. It has 
been clearly proved here, as elsewhere, that on 
the whole no funds are better cared for or longer 
endure than those entrusted to educational institu- 
tions. 

In the earlier part of the decade just closing, it 
became apparent that a free school for an unlimited 
number could not be maintained. Either the total 
number of students must be limited or the free 
tuition must be limited. The gifts of the largest 
benefactoi* of the Institute — the elder Salisbury — 
contemplated a wider than local benefit from the 
funds. Hence, in 1889, it was determined to allot 
the entire income from the Boynton fund in thirty- 
five scholarships for Worcester county. These, 
with tlie State and district fund scholarships, made 
fifty-six in all. This step, o])posed by some at the 
time, has enhanced the estimate of the Institute's 



26 



training. It was averred that the change wonld 
sound the death knt-ll ut' the work: as a fact, the 
munber of -tudt-nts increased steadily. TVhat costs 
is prized: what is givt-n is <'ften. hke food bestowed 
on tramps, thrown away. ]N^o more than before has 
any needy and really promising stndent. residing 
within the conntr or State, who could not wisely 
wait, failfd to receive some assistanct- . 

The mcist difficult problem recently presented in 
the practical administration of the Institute has 
been how to find time for the new work which the 
continual fresh discoveries in the aits and the new 
apphcations of scienct- rendered necessary. Sixty 
honrs of assigned work weekly were found to be 
more than the average student could be fiiTaly and 
thoughtfully held to. TTe came up to that hmit. 
and then decided, faculty aud trustees, in Xovem- 
bt-r. 1S92. that all com^ses of study sh(:iuld be four 
years in length. The scheme cba^vn comprised 
additional apphed. especially laboratory, work in 
senior year, and set fifty-two hours as the average 
Wf ekly task. Its operation the past year has proved 
eminently satisfactory. There is a limit to human 
endeavor. The bow. sprung too far. snaps. There 
is no compensation for the loss of that elasticity of 
spirit, which, rather than gTace of face or form, is 
the charm of youth. The education that is wise, 
thouo'h it involves di'udo"eiw, makes no mere druds'es 
or machines. Yet it must stretch the man or it is 
useless. If the bow is not sprimg the aiTOw never 
flies to the mark. 

The same thought apphes to teachers as well as 



27 

to students. The instructor who does not outstrip 
himself sets no good pace for others, but if the work 
is too heavy it suffers in quahty. The professor in 
his class or lecture room should be at his best, but 
if he must be confined there all the time he cannot 
always be at his best. The average hours of in- 
struction given at the Institute per man are more 
than are generally given by college professors, and 
have often precluded the scholarly research and 
patient investigation in which it would have been a 
delight to engage. 

While most of those who have wrought in the 
heat and burden of the day are vigorous for further 
service, I cannot forget that two or three valued in- 
structors have fallen by the way. One, Mr. A. M. 
Chapin, died June 5, 1880; another, Prof. T. E. I^. 
Eaton, in June, 1891, after nineteen years of excel- 
lent service, retired with shattered nerves and throb- 
bing brow to the more genial climate of California. 
The third. Prof. E. P. Smith, after twenty years of 
most faithful instruction, died May 12, 1892, as sud- 
denly as the stretched wire snaps in the testing- 
room. If he spared not others he never spared 
himself, and he lived and toiled long enough to see 
the department he opened firmly established, recog- 
nized as an essential and indispensable part of au}^ 
course of study and acknowledged by graduates to 
be as pi'actical as any feature of the Institute train- 
ing. 

Of all the instructors of the Institute it may be 
truly said that they liave devoted themselves mind 
and soul to their work, and have made it tlieir pride 



28 

and delight. What that work really is — to have 
daily and almost hourly contact with young, fresh, 
vigorous life, full of ambition, hope, and promise, to 
watch the change from boyhood to manhood, to see 
seed sown slowly germinate, take root, grow and 
mature, to discern impulsiveness give way to self- 
control, self-confidence to thoughtfulness, self-asser- 
tion to search for truth, to feel responsiveness, or 
questioning, or doubt, or sometimes distrust or 
opposition, to be drawn into sympathy with the 
difficulties, the perplexities, the aspirations and the 
endeavors of those before you so constantly, to wit- 
ness the result of wrestling with those difficulties, 
the stimulus of a noble purjDOse and the fruitage of 
persistent industry, to realize that in this daily inter- 
course each life becomes a part of your life, and 
your life a part of that other life — no man knows 
that work who does not engage in it, and he that 
does know it cannot tell it to another. 

Thus I have endeavored to show that the quarter- 
century just closed, while a period of almost contin- 
uous growth, may be fairly divided into two epochs 
— one, of organization and experiment; the other, not 
less difficult or important, of reorganization and ad- 
justment. I confess my inability to do justice to the 
earlier epoch. I know it chiefly as a tradition, and I 
know its fruit. 

I am sure, however, that in the later epoch there 
has been not only growth of numbers and increase of 
resources and equipment, but a broadening of the 
general policy of the Institute, an enlargement of its 



29 

scope of work as demanded by the times, more flexi- 
bility in its methods and a better adaptation of its 
training to individual needs, ^ot all, however, that 
is desirable has yet been attained. There is still 
room for improvement, and there must in the future 
be fresh adjustments to changing conditions. What 
in method, scope, and proportion is good to-day 
will, like the clothing of a growing boy, to-morrow 
be outgrown. But sure foundations have been laid. 
The utility of combined study, handicraft and labor- 
atory work is no longer problematic. The wisdom 
of attempting to construct serviceable wares as a part 
of educational training in mechanical and electrical 
engineering is not gainsayed by those who know 
the method and its results. The reputation of the 
Institute is wide and honorable. It has the confi- 
dence of the citizens of Worcester, as is shown by 
the quadrupled attendance of students from the city 
within ten years."^ Its graduates have done work — 
alike creditable to themselves and to their alma 
mater. The experiment has been pronounced a suc- 
cess. It not infrequently comes to me as the judg- 
ment both of employer and of scientists that in its 
plan and methods, and in many respects in the actual 
results attained, the Institute stands in the front rank 
of its kind. In those features of its work which are 
most distinctive and unique, it invites comparison 
with any similar institution in the whole world. Its 
usefidness is assured. Its future cannot fail of 
realizing a brilliant promise. The Institute of 



* In 1883 there were registered as from the city of Worcester 29 
students; in 1893, 112. 



30 



this year, measurably successful in what it has 
undertaken through the sagacity of its founders, 
and somewhat uniqueness of its plan, the succor 
given to it from time to time by the trustees and by 
the State, and especially through the untiring and 
self-sacrilicing labors of those who have immediate- 
ly administered its affairs, led its counsels, solved 
its problems, and with pains and skill and patience 
wrought upon both experiment and transformation, 
will, in the coming years, if generously supported, 
wisely governed and unitedly and unselfishly labor- 
ed for, continue to be one of the chief ornaments of 
the city, become still broader and more beneficent 
in its influence and prove to all the youth of this 
region an unspeakable and enduring blessing. 



I 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 996 889 3 $ 



